I was a member of a union for two years. I worked for a grocery store(A fairly large Chicago chain). While I was there it was a fairly decent place to work, however, since I left, my friends still there are telling me horror after horrible story.
For instance, all employees(over 16) are required to be available until 11 at night on weekdays. The majority of employees are high school students, and this is coming out at the same time as they are giving their available hours for the school year.
The manager is also insituting new and interesting objectives. Things like not meeting a average dollar amount per order, as a cashier, or scanning too many coupons, a lot of things that are not really controlable as a cashier. Several people have complained to any number of managers, but since most are young, they tend not to listen.
My friends have been asking me what to do. I suggested complaining to the union rep. but they are all convinced no one is going to listen to them.
I was considering going back to this store during breaks from college to make some quick cash. However, the way things are going, I don’t think they’d treat me any better, despite being one of the better liked employee’s. It just strikes me as the top level managers at this store are taking advantage of the young’uns.
If the management won’t listen to some of the complaints against the more inane rules (like you can’t scan more than x # of coupons), and they don’t think the union rep will listen, the employee can just tell the customer the new inane rule. Chances are the customer will ask for the manager and complain. Because as a customer, no store will tell me that I can’t, say, use 13 different coupons for 13 different items when I know that the fine print on those coupons doesn’t prohibit it.
I’ve worked a lot of food service and retail (back in the paying for college days) and the quickest way to get something resolved (as an employee) was not necessarily to make the complaint to the manager, but to explain the situation to the customer and then have the customer speak to the manager.
Case in point: one of my managers at a sub shop started a minimum order policy (at least 6" of sub). One of my favorite customers would come in several times a day and just get a cookie or a drink or a sandwich. When I explained to the manager that I couldn’t control what fav customer ordered, he didn’t listen. So I told fav customer what was going on, he complained, told other people to complain, and within 2 days the policy changed.
Well I would go ahead and bring it up with the union, what is there to lose? Re: working until 11:00 p.m. every night, maybe this is something that can be brought up with someone at your school, they should know whether this is legal, and if it is then maybe they could put some pressure on the store anyhow. Re: the minimum order size and limit on coupons, does your local newspaper have some sort of “consumer affairs” columnist who might be interested in writing about the topic? Or is there a state attorney general’s office where you can ask simple questions about this sort of thing?
File a grievance. If the union doesn’t care, then what the hell are workers paying dues for? If enough of the workers think the union is useless, call a vote to disband the union.
I like the trickle down method already mentioned. Any stupid policies implemented at my office that affect customer satisfaction get explained to the customer right away. As soon as the customer starts bitching in my ear, I say “please hold for a supervisor”.